Although we live in a tiny town of only 2600 inhabitants, we have more and better shops than the size of the place would imply. This is party due to it being a tourist destination but also because it's the commercial centre for a lot of scattered villages, hamlets and farms. Today (being a Wednesday) would normally be the Welsh conversation group meeting in one of the local cafes, but of course the week between Christmas and New Year is always an odd one. Officially it's a normal working week but in practice so many people take the time off that everything goes into limbo. However, I decided that I'd go to the cafe anyway. The worst that could happen would be that I'd sit for half an hour, drinking tea and reading a book. It would get me out of the house and -- after a lot of wet, dreary grey days -- it was a bright sunny morning.

As it transpired, everyone was either away, had family visiting or had gone down with the 'flu that had prevented me from attending the week before, so I sat and sipped my tea and read more of Pwnc Llosg (A Welsh murder mystery) until it was obvious that no one else was coming and the teapot was empty. I left the cafe and went shopping.

I had four items on my list and I not only bought those, I found extra things that I hadn't thought I could get in town. Here is the total haul.

The things that were on my list were the pudding basin and the bottle of kitchen cleaner (both from the ironmongers) and the thermometer and bag of disposable razors (not in the photo) from Boots. But in addition to these planned purchases, I noticed that the extremely old-fashioned clothes shop had vests in the window. I'd had to throw several vests away recently because they were going into holes, but the ones I'd bought (online) a couple of years ago hadn't really been what I wanted. The neckline was too high so they showed above my t-shirts and they barely covered my midriff, when everyone knows that vests need to be long enough to ensure there are no gaps to let the cold in.

The in-car phone charger and 64Gb flash drive were surprise finds on a rack at the back of Boots. I'd been going to order these online, but finding them today for instant purchase saved time. I'm going to be using my phone a lot more next year because I've found a really good free SatNav app (recommended by my daughter) and I plan to be taking lots of video for a new project I'm planning. Being able to charge the phone on the go will really help. I also need to research external batteries for phones, but that I will have to do online or wait until I next visit A Big Place. The black box at the back of the photo wasn't bought in town but was ordered online and arrived today. That is a bendy phone tripod that will also be substantial enough to old my DSLR. I'll be explaining the need for this new photographic accessory in later posts. :)

And, finally, the thermometer...

As I've previously mentioned, I had a mild 'flu just before Christmas and I kept taking my temperature with the old-fashioned glass mercury thermometer. Wandering around the kitchen with it in my mouth it came to me that it was a bit silly to still be using such a potentially dangerous and difficult to read device. Basically I was putting a fragile glass tube filled with a deadly poison in my mouth. What if I had a sudden sneezing fit and bit into the thermometer? I'd have a mouthful of glass shards and mercury! And then they're hard to read. You have to turn the thermometer to exactly the right angle so that the thin thread of mercury is magnified and then you have to read a very finely graduated scale. This was fine when there was no other choice, but I now have a safe, easy to read thermometer for the next time I suspect I have a fever.

I don't often make them, but I do always try to make my own Christmas puddings because they're really easy to make (apart from having to look after them while they steam for 6 hours) and they taste better than bought ones. But I noticed after we'd eaten the first of the new batch for Christmas dinner that the plastic basic was starting to split at the edge -- hence the need for a replacement.